Friday, July 31, 2009

Matthew and I leave in less than an hour for his home state, Ohio. We'll be spending the next week visiting his family and friends. I'm looking forward to it! We're flying up and then driving back on the 10th in the old suburban his parents are giving us (we plan on selling my rodeo). On our way back to Florida, we'll stay the night at my family's house :) Let the family vacation begin!

Here are a few photos from our cruise. It was a WONDERFUL vacation with my family last week. I'll post more on both trips when I get back.

Matt & I on the boat Me with my mom before a show Sisters <3 Dad and I in front of a wall in Nassau that read... "this is how much I love you."

Monday, July 13, 2009

Can you find me in the photo? Ha. I have made it through four weeks as site coordinator for the Freedom School and now I'm down to my last one (Praise God!). It really has flown by, although there were times I thought week 5 would never come. The National staff require that an end of the summer report be completed (it's HUGE) so that is taking up my spare time during the day. We also have our Freedom School finale Thursday night for parents, funders, and other members of the community. The scholars will be performing in drama, African dance, music, sign language, step, and book talks. On Friday is our big field trip - Blizzard Beach - I'm already praying now that things go smoothly on that day. A water park with a large group is a bad idea in my opinion, but we will manage. I am thankful for this opportunity because having a summer job is a pretty great blessing. And having one that lasts 5 weeks is wonderful because it allows for some relaxing/vacation time!

Vacation begins this weekend :) I am thrilled to share that I will be on a cruise to the Bahamas with my husband and family come next Monday. I will return on Friday with pictures to post! My parents and sisters drive down this coming Saturday so that allows some extra time for them to come see how we've turned our apartment into a home since they were last here for the wedding. When the cruise is over, I will have a week of glorious "nothing" that I can spend job searching some more (endless process) and catching up on crafts/home projects. Matthew and I will then leave for a week in Ohio visiting his family. We will have a new nephew on his side this Wed. and we especially look forward to seeing him!

Last time I posted, I mentioned a 6 month anniversary surprise my husband was planning. I have to say that he is incredible with surprises and loves planning those sorts of things. Well, we set out driving early on that Saturday morning to a destination unknown. Just when I thought we'd be going to St. Augustine (I was secretly hoping we would!) he took a strange detour and had me quite confused. With a clever mind, he had mapped out another way to St. Augustine that I wouldn't recognize. I felt loved and joyful when we pulled into the familiar parking garage. St. Augustine is special for us because it's where he proposed, then we visited again a year later - just a few short months before our wedding - and now we were back as the newlyweds!

With a picnic lunch, we began walking in a direction we hadn't been before. Not sure what he was up to, I followed along as we went down this side street and into a subdivision. A few moments later, he brought me back around to a scooter/bike rental business. He said I needed to sign a paper and then we'd have a motorized scooter for as long as we wanted! His reasoning behind this idea was so sweet - he knew that I wanted to ride a motorcycle so I could sit behind him and put my arms around him, so with no motorcycle license or motorcycle, he improvised and planned this little adventure for us. After a few test circles, we headed out over to the historic district. We decided to make our first stop at 10th Street, the location on the beach where we were engaged. We took a photo and then headed on our way to the pier for lunch.

At the pier we met a young, neat Christian couple that lives in Maitland, just a short distance from our apartment. We hope to meet up with them for lunch sometime soon. When we left the pier, we headed back to the historic district to cruise around. Here we are on the scooter. I photographed and filmed much of our ride around the city.

Our evening concluded with a nice dinner at PizzAlley's. We like to visit different restaurants while there. Following dinner we walked the streets, wandering in and out of shops, just soaking it in and enjoying being with each other. It truly was a lovely 6th month anniversary!

Sleep is beginning to overcome me so I'm off to get rest before another Freedom School day. It felt good to post and I look forward to catching up on blog reading soon!